A Devil by Any Other Name: Chapter 1 - Of the World

“Because you only have one life, why not do what you want? Because you only have so much, why not make the most of it? Because you are worth something, why not live happily?”

-motto of the worshipers of the Blue Serpent

Chapter 1 – Of the World

Much like the rest of the men of the world, Parker dedicates himself to the Blue Serpent or the eel. Unlike some religions, Parker doesn’t have to attend church services, follow a strict set of morals, or fulfill an obligation other than to do what his heart desires and accept the other serpents as legitimate gods to abide by. This gives him an easy life, a profitable job, and many friends. His job allows him to indulge himself in relaxation and hobbies of his choice. Even as he sees people being taken advantage of and others struggling to get by in the streets, he keeps his head down and says nothing.

“It doesn’t concern me, so I shouldn’t bother,” he thinks to himself just like everyone else in the world when they see similar things.

The only time that Parker bothers himself with anything is when he sees the Messengers, worshippers of a strange deity that is fundamentally counter to the serpents. He mocks their beliefs and laughs at them when they are bullied on the streets or online. Other people like him use their history to disprove their beliefs and make them look like fools, backward, and insane. The media he consumes does much the same along with the news he watches as most things in the world reaffirm his own beliefs. As far as he knows, he is justified in living the way he does and is not wrong in a single aspect of his beliefs.

On the topic of religion, he respects all other beliefs other than those concerning the Messengers and the Message they worship. Seeing worshippers of the red serpent or the dragon as he is better known is a common occurrence for Parker since the red serpent is worshipped and benefits influencers the most. There are also the worshippers of the maggot or the brown serpent. He doesn’t mind them even with their overt religiosity that doesn’t appeal to him. Of course, he also doesn’t want to criticize or make fun of the brown serpent worshippers as that would ostracize him from society. Besides, the brown serpent worshippers also don’t really try to convert him, condemn his beliefs, or live too differently.

“Different strokes for different folks,” Parker thinks to himself while thinking about those who dedicate themselves to other serpents.

At the age of thirty-five, Parker adopts a dog, marries, and is now father to an infant girl. Though he is upset that he no longer has the freedom to do as he wishes, there’s something about having a family of his own that comforts him, and yet, upsets him at the same time. At the very least, he is relieved to have an excuse to skip out on being with his parents. After years of hard work, he and his wife are invited to an extravagant party made for those like them. During the party, they have more than their fill of expensive wines and food and have to be taken home by their friends, however, they don’t know that Parker and his wife will die of heart disease due to their overdrinking that night, which is a result of their lack of self-control and wanting to show off at the party. This leaves their infant daughter to starve to death while their dog rummages through the house desperate to feed itself.

Soon after exhausting everything that can be reasonably eaten in the house, the dog eats the rotting bodies of Parker, his wife, and then eats their dead infant as well. Knowing that a new meal is approaching, the dog readies itself near the door while barking. A man clothed in dirty wraps and pants and a hoodie stained by ash enters the home. The dog leaps at the man but is caught by the neck which is snapped in an instant by the man’s strength. As he crushes the dog’s neck, the man is tempted to keep squeezing until the dog’s head falls off its body but stops and then lays the dead dog down on the floor.

“Taking out my anger on you won’t fix anything,” the man says to the dead dog before going upstairs.

While upstairs, the man does his best to ignore the blood-soaked room that once belonged to the infant and goes into Parker’s room. He looks through his things until he finds Parker’s employee card. The man then looks over to the bed at the bones and small bits of viscera that the dog didn’t eat.

“I used to be like you, Parker. My family ended up in the same condition, but in a different way that…no. I am going to set things right. I hope at the end of your life that you regretted living it the way you did. I know I did,” the man says to what’s left of Parker before leaving the house.

Before the man heads deeper into the city, he makes sure his rough scaly skin is hidden by his bandages. Even though the people in the streets are busy with their own lives and taught not to judge at all, he still wants to be safe. The man then scrolls through his phone that tell him the currently known status of all employees in the building he is going to. Once he gets there, he looks up at the massive structure that is a singular towering building surrounded by smaller but still large buildings. All these skyscrapers are connected by hallways that lead into one another on different floors. On the side of these buildings is the symbol of the eel, a symbol that fills the man with hatred.

“Now, I begin to set things right,” the man whispers to himself before heading into the building.

Heading into the building, the man stops by the main receptionist's desk who is currently busy at her computer. He grabs a piece of candy that he puts in his mouth before putting a pin of a seal close to the receptionist. By the time the man is in the elevator, the receptionist notices the pin and wants to thank whoever put it there, but since no one is close to her that could’ve put it there, she assumes it was from a secret admirer and adds it to her collection. Meanwhile, the man has made his way up the largest skyscraper as far as the elevator can take him until he has to get off and walk and enter the next elevator that takes him further up.  He uses Parker’s employee card to access the elevator and makes his way up further. Finally, near the top, he goes up to a door that can only be unlocked with an eye scan and voice code.

Going up to the eye scanner, the computer scans the man’s eye as he says, “Icktos.”

The security on the other side that monitors this station is surprised by the scan and the password that is said since only those with high authority know the password and how to say it correctly. They quickly open the door and go to meet the man near the door and are surprised by his appearance.

One of the head guards says, “Is that you-”

“It’s just the result of a bad day at work. Don’t worry about it, Roger,” the man says as he holds up his hand.

At first, the other guards are speechless and not sure what to do. They recognize the man’s voice and the scans never misidentify a person so they know for sure who he is but are worried by the way he looks.

“So, I assume the ceremony didn’t or did go as planned judging by your bandages? Do you need us to do anything for you, sir?” Roger asks.

“I need you to sound the fire alarm and get everyone to leave,” the man says.

“What?”

“You heard what I said.”

“We…we can’t simply do that without good reason.”

The man punches through one of the desks as if it were made of styrofoam.

“I gave you an order, Roger. You know better than to question me.”

“It is true that the ceremony worked. Something has changed in you.”

The man shakes off his impatient anger and then says, “Roger, I didn’t mean to lose my temper to scare you.”

“No, it’s okay, but what are you going to do? You know that if we leave, they’ll find us and punish both us and our families.”

“Go down to the sewers underneath the cemetery five blocks from here, find the door with the bronze serpent on it, knock on it, and tell them I sent you.”

“Bronze serpent? You want us to go to the messengers?”

“Trust me when I say that they’ll help you just as they’ve helped me. I’m going to make things right, Roger. You’ll see soon enough.”

After a few seconds of thinking, Roger says, “Okay, boys and girls, let’s not keep our boss from his work. He’s had our back before when the other bosses didn’t, so let’s give him our trust.”

“Thank you, Roger.”

“Thank you, sir. It’s the least I can do for you.”

“Don’t say that and don’t call me ‘sir’ anymore. I’m not your boss.”

“Do you want me to call you by your name then?”

“No, because I’m not the same man I was before if you can call me a man. Just get out of here before it’s too late. I’ll give everyone time to escape.”

“Sure thing, my friend.”

Roger sounds the fire alarm and announces to everyone in the building through the speakers to immediately leave the building. He and the other guards then leave the room as the man continues up to the uppermost floor. On the top floor, he uses his personal access card to enter a room with writhing eels in fish tanks, and a large blue eel swims around in a tank in the center of the ceremonial room. While walking around the room, the man hears whispers and remembers his past.

The whispers remind him, “Here is where you first started your journey to a happy life. You dedicated yourself and your family to your cause as did everyone else who entered here.”

“It was one of the worst mistakes I ever made. I wish I could’ve lived and died in the streets instead,” the man admits.

“You don’t mean that. You couldn’t bear to see your family be unhappy over anything.”

“And yet their blood and the blood of everyone I had to step on it get to where I am still stains my hands and haunts my mind.”

“You can get another family that will love you just as much or even more than the previous. You can be even happier than you were before.”

“Was I happy? Truly happy? I don’t think so. I might’ve felt it, but I was always yearning for more and to keep it. I never had peace of mind or heart.”

“What do you suggest you do then? You’ve never known true happiness or peace outside of the blessings we have given you.”

“I haven’t until the Message reached me through his Messengers after that ceremony the serpents put me through. Speaking about them, I have a message for you.”

A bronze serpent appears from the man’s bandages as he reaches out his arm towards the Blue Serpent. From its scarred body, a drop of its blood falls to the ground. Soon after, cracks start forming in the building until it all falls.

“This isn’t over. This isn’t going to make up for what you’ve done. We’ll be back, but before then, our brothers will come after you,” the Blue Serpent says before the ground under it swallows it whole.

“Good because I’ll be coming for them as well,” the man says as he exits the room.

The once structurally sound connected skyscrapers begin to sway and fall onto one another as if they were dying serpents. Whoever is left in the building moves even faster to leave with the man hidden among them. By the time the authorities arrive, the man has disappeared from the scene. Meanwhile, Roger and the other guards have made their way to the sewers and the door with the bronze serpent on it. They mention that the man sent them, are let in, and are surprised to see such a lively underground community. Even though the shacks are made of discarded pieces of metal and wood and the area seems rather dirty, people seem happier here than on the surface. What’s even more surprising is that the guards soon find the man joining them and expressing to them a faith that he once tried to erase from existence.

“You’ve really changed, haven’t you?” Roger asks the man.

“I’d like to think I have, but I have much more work to do to prove it.”

“Well, you did go out of your way to save everyone in the building before bringing it down and that has to count for something. Mind telling me how you did that?”

“It’s kind of a long story.”

“Tell us then. It’s not like we have anywhere to go.”

“I do. I have a life I need to redeem and serpents to bring down from their thrones.”

“Oi, what did I tell you about exerting yourself too much,” an old priestly man says as he approaches the man.

“The old man is right. You were always constantly working so you could keep yourself, your family, and your friends happy,” Roger adds.

“Okay, okay! I’ll take a breather before heading back out again, but it can’t be too long. I don’t want a repeat of what happened to Roger to happen again.”

“Roger?”

“I got his employee card since they change people’s access to the mid-high levels. Roger died probably because he partied too hard at his promotion party and by the time I got to him, his dog had eaten his body, his wife’s body, and his child’s.”

“Leave their fates in the hand of the Message. You can’t save everyone,” the priestly man says.

“Yeah…yeah. I know.”

“Hey, again I’ll point out that you saved us and a bunch of other people. Let’s sit down and tell me about what you’ve been up to, friend.”

“I don’t feel worthy of being called a friend.”

“Tell me why when you tell us your story.”

The man sits down with his past friends and vents about his past to them. While he is talking and being comforted by the kind words of his friends, he doesn’t feel much better but appreciates what comfort he does feel and their concern for him. He is now more motivated than ever to bring down the serpents of the world and bring the truth of the Message to everyone, especially after seeing his friends become happier after accepting the Message.

“Now, I’m truly beginning to make things right, and hopefully, they’ll be set that way and my soul can be completely redeemed,” the man says to himself before heading out again.